Arabic Script in Motion:
A Theory of Temporal Text-based Art
Arabic Script in Motion is a pioneering study of temporal typography and time-based calligraphic art written in the Arabic system of writing. Inspired by the innate qualities of Arabic script as well as certain practices in Islamic calligraphy and contemporary calligraphic art, the book devises five broad categories of temporal behaviors for Arabic characters in time-based media. It goes onto expand the vocabulary used to describe Arabic script’s appearance in time-based media and proposes a theory to help artists, practitioners, and theoreticians push the boundaries of temporal text-based art. Furthermore, it tackles questions of legibility and readability and seeks to understand how the temporality of Arabic text influences the creation of meaning. This book will, therefore, appeal not only to animators, designers, and artists but also to commentators and scholars who deal with temporal text-based art written in Arabic script.
“This book presents exciting new methodologies to negotiate the use of the Arabic text and calligraphy in a wider context of Islamic practices and cultures as part of the contemporary global art scene. It investigates the genealogy and trajectory of the Arabic script temporally into a contemporary mobility and animation that surpasses the typical manipulation of calligraphy of the postmodern period. The author’s original animations offer new innovative possibilities for the notion of contemporary Islamic art and are stunning aesthetically.”
—Nada Shabout, University of North Texas, USA
“Arabic Script in Motion models the vitality of rigorous praxis-driven animation scholarship. The book embraces the philosophy and vocabulary of Islamic calligraphy as a dynamic framework for understanding and composing animated text across a variety of interfaces and materials. Through a series of propositions and experiments that explore the gestural and temporal aspects of calligraphic form, Arabic Script in Motion connects animation to interdisciplinary media art in exciting ways.”
—Rose Bond, Professor, Pacific Northwest College of Art at Willamette University
—Alla Gadassik, Associate Professor, Emily Carr University
—Amy Ratelle, Vice-President SAS, University of Toronto
About the Author:
M Javad Khajavi is a multidisciplinary digital media designer and scholar who works at the intersection of art, design and technology. He is deeply invested in interdisciplinary research approaches that are informed by practice-led research, design thinking, and methods and tools in digital humanities. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the National University of Ireland in Maynooth. He was previously teaching and researching at the Institute of Film and Animation of Volda University College in Norway, where he also served as the area coordinator for the Animation program. Javad received his PhD from the School of Art, Design and Media of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. The underlying focus of his research is to investigate issues of representation and perception in animation-based media, Virtual Reality and Game.
